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I always say that Rio could easily be the most beautiful city in the world if better planned/taken care of. It would be awesome if they could revitalize and transform the hills into something like Santorini. Unfortunately I don't believe the Brazilian politicians will do anything, not even in 20 years.
So, show me exactly where I have claimed "great infrastructure" in Rocinha or any other Brazilian favela?
Why are you talking about "infrastructure"? Maybe you are some kind of functional illiterate, so you can't properly read?
Where in the videos is it claimed that Rocinha has "great public infrastructure"?
Where in my posts is it claimed?
No, the Brazilian favelas don't have great public infrastructure. In fact, in my own posts I have made it clear that the favelas look "chaotic".
By the way, I posted VIDEOS of Rocinha, so you don't need to post any photos of it from Google Street View, because the VIDEOS that I posted surely give a much more clear vision of the place than any static photos.
So, what is your point?
Yeah, the favelas have terrible public infrastructure, and I'm glad only 6% of Brazilians live in favelas, according to the last Census data, what means 94% of Brazilians don't live in favelas.
But at the same time that the favelas have poor public infrastructure, many of them have a reasonable PRIVATE infrastructure, in terms of PRIVATE SERVICES, like restaurants, shops, delivery of pizza, and even bank branches (as is the case in Rocinha, shown in the videos). And each year that passes, and the income of the people who live in the favelas increases more and more, we see even more private services in the favelas.
By the way, even if the public infrastructure in the favela isn't great, at least more than 90% of the houses in Brazil's favelas have electricity and running water.
And, most important of all, regardless of the infrastructure that people in the favelas have OUTSIDE of their homes, the real point here is what people have INSIDE their homes, and they have EVERYTHING that people in any American ghetto have: flat panel TV, Xbox, refrigerator, washing machine, laptop, some even have air conditioning in some of the rooms of their homes.
SO, I CAN PROVE BEYOND ANY DOUBT MY POINT: people in the Brazilian favelas no longer live in "misery" or in "abject poverty". They are only 6% of Brazilians, but even them are not living in "abject poverty".
So, your pathetic attempt to ridicularize Brazil and Brazilian favelas by posting Google Street View pictures proved to be an incredible FAIL.
Did it ever occurred to you that I was not responding to you or anyone else?
Its a good thing everyone on City-Data is not as self-centered, otherwise these threads would had been filled with idiotic posts like the one posted by MalaMan:
It is kind of funny how in the United States, living in the mountains is for the rich, but if you go to Latin America it is all of the poor neighborhoods. I always thought they were lucky
That's not true everywhere in Latin America. A good example is Bogota, Colombia; the mountains on the edge of the city are slum free. In fact, many foothills of those mountains are developed as elegant neighborhoods for the wealthy and upper middle class.
Did it ever occurred to you that I was not responding to you or anyone else?
Its a good thing everyone on City-Data is not as self-centered, otherwise these threads would had been filled with idiotic posts like the one posted by MalaMan:
I always say that Rio could easily be the most beautiful city in the world if better planned/taken care of. It would be awesome if they could revitalize and transform the hills into something like Santorini. Unfortunately I don't believe the Brazilian politicians will do anything, not even in 20 years.
Maybe the government or Batista could give away free white paint and have all those favelas residents paint their own homes and make their cities look like those Medeterranian beach towns.
That's not true everywhere in Latin America. A good example is Bogota, Colombia; the mountains on the edge of the city are slum free. In fact, many foothills of those mountains are developed as elegant neighborhoods for the wealthy and upper middle class.
Not true. Just google Bogota slum images and you will see most are on hilly areas. It depends on the area. They are just not allowed to build their homes in the rich neighborhoods because those are usually already privately owned. The internally displaced which are millions of people are not going to the downtown areas to built their slums. They build them where they can.
I was in Rocinha on a recent trip to Brazil. I agree that it has banks, restaurants (including sushi)...plenty of people are well dressed and their homes have computers and other amenities that plenty of poor people in the US and other places don't have.
The most jilting part as an American is the wiring and chaos. But it wasn't as I imagined- which was really destitute and full of beggars, no running water, etc.
Americans can stand to visit other places and learn about them.
Let me tell you, if you are scared of a place like Copacabana then you probably should avoid NYC and Chicago and LA. Parts of Rio (and Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires) felt perfectly first world and safer than plenty of US cities I have visited.
I always say that Rio could easily be the most beautiful city in the world if better planned/taken care of. It would be awesome if they could revitalize and transform the hills into something like Santorini. Unfortunately I don't believe the Brazilian politicians will do anything, not even in 20 years.
Don't forget that Brazil is still a poor country. They simply don't have the money to do it all at once, it takes time. Even rich countries don't have the money anymore to fix places like Detroit or some run-down suburbs of European cities.
But I guess there is a certain momentum and awareness now in Brazil, people want change and progress more than ever, they know what is important for their future. Thus the protests against the soccer championship, which is quite amazing for Brazil.
If it were not for the crime, I would not mind living in one of those modernized favelas, there is life and culture and minimalism is no problem for me.
Brazil is not a poor country, but its not rich either. People need to stop assuming that countries that are not rich are poor and that there's no in between. In fact, most countries in Latin America are not poor.
The technical word to describe Brazil is Upper Middle Income country, the poor countries fit in the Low Income category.
Brazil is not a poor country, but its not rich either. People need to stop assuming that countries that are not rich are poor and that there's no in between. In fact, most countries in Latin America are not poor.
The technical word to describe Brazil is Upper Middle Income country, the poor countries fit in the Low Income category.
Relatively poor would be more correct.
But I don't think much of those technical terms, the categories are much too broad. When for instance Uruguay is in the same group (high-income) as Norway, I doubt that classification makes much sense.
I think São Paulo drives the average for Brazil up tremendously, while the country as a whole is still relatively poor. I know people in São Paulo, they would be relieved if they had what the term upper-middle income implies...
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